Interview W/ The White Panda

The White Panda is one of the top mash-up acts out. Consisting of Chicago native Tom Evans and Daniel Griffith who hails from the sunny state of California, this duo has managed to earn themselves a solid reputation within the mash-up genre which sees them on the road more often than not. Having released their newest free album, Bearly Legal to a flood of positive critique, The White Panda have just kicked off their nationwide tour.

I spoke to The White Panda about their album Bearly Legal, but I also couldn’t help but have a little fun with the concept of the mash-up. I asked them a few fun questions towards the end. It was a little messy but a whole lot of fun. As well as being great producers/DJ’s, it’s fair to say that The White Panda are also great sports. Check it out.

What is a White Panda? Tom: *Laughs* What is a White Panda? Alright. We’ll start broad. The White Panda is a music project between myself, Tom and my long-time childhood friend Dan Griffith. It started when we were both in college. I went to North Western in Chicago and he lives in L.A. and it’s essentially a mash-up remix duo. Back when we got started, we took a genre that we had a lot of appreciation for (the mash-up) and tried to develop it to more of a dancey, in style music and started making our own mixes and releasing them online. Once we gained some traction, we started to perform nationwide and then in Canada and some in Mexico. And now we’ve been touring on and off for about three and a half years now. We’ve put out five full length albums and our newest one Bearly Legal just came out.

Would you say you were the masters of mash-up? Dan: Um. I don’t want to go that far. I really think that we’re certainly in the upper echelon of that category. Obviously – I don’t know if Tom’s mentioned Girl Talk at all, but he’s really the pioneer of the genre. He’s kind of the top of the pyramid but I definitely think that we’re making a good pace for ourselves. We’re definitely up there amongst the top and I definitely think the quality of our work coincides with our placement.

What are the White Panda weapons of choice? Tom: Uh. Well, we’ve got different stuff for when we’re performing and producing. Most of our production, you just need a high functioning computer and an internet connection, and I guess a credit card. But we both work on primarily Ableton Live, our software program. We use a variety of mini controllers and various plug-ins to enhance the work as much as we can. We operate almost entirely within the Ableton Live program. A lot of the content we need to produce, we get from various online sources. Acapellas. Instrumentals. Samples. All that stuff. A lot of people think that we have crazy connections with record labels, you know, getting all of these exclusive things but that’s really not the case. If you look hard you’re able to find the same samples that we’re able to find and create our mixes. And then when we perform live, there’s obviously additional equipment. Some additional audio stuff. Mini controllers as well as sliding controllers that we use that control visual elements of our show. But, nothing too crazy.

Dan: We definitely do find a lot of our samples out in the open but I think especially over the last year or so, our relations, our touring with other artists and the visibility that we get now has definitely opened up some opportunities for us. Even some of the samples that we use on this album, no one really has a hold of. There are artists that reach out to us now and send us exclusive stuff and they want us to do some work with them.

Barely Legal is out. It’s been called the best mash up album in years. How does that make you feel? Dan: It’s definitely awesome. We’ve been working so hard on this. I’d say this is the longest period of time between album releases so, we basically have taken a lot of time to develop this and even leading up to the release, we’ve been working so hard and been so close to the music that I wouldn’t say we got sick of it… but we started to worry “Are people gonna like it anymore?” because we’d been hearing the same songs over and over again for hours on end. So, uh… We were definitely a little nervous hoping that people were still gonna enjoy it but the fact that the response has been so positive it’s definitely a good feeling, knowing how much time and effort we put into it.

Tell us about the upcoming tour? Tom: The tour’s still being hashed out. We haven’t announced a lot of the dates yet. We like to announce them in full once the routing has all been put together. We’re going to hit most of those big populous regions of the US over the course of this summer and the fall in support of this album. A lot of college towns. A lot of university shows. We’re sort of always been a professionally touring act. We love being on the road and one of the best things about mash-up music is that it creates such an awesome party atmosphere and it’s so conducive for a live show setting. So we spend a lot of time on the road and we’re excited to get back out there after taking a month and a half off to just totally focus on the album.

Just wanted to have some fun with the whole mash-up concept. If you could put two drinks together to make up your own “cocktail mash-up”, what would The White Panda cocktail mash up be? Dan: Mmmm… I don’t know what would actually taste good together. I’m a big whiskey guy myself. Tom: What’s that drink website where you can plug in music and they give you a drink? Drinkify? I’m gonna go and check. *Tom checks Drinkify* Something about raspberry vodka which I don’t know if I wanna put in there *Laughs* Dan: No. Let’s not go with that. I’ll pick the first drink Tom and you pick the second one. Old Fashioned… Tom: I’ll say an Irish Car Bomb.

The White Panda movie mash up? Two movies. Smash them together. Come up with a dope title.

Dan: *Laughs* Oh man, this is the hardest interview ever. Uh… I dunno. The first movie that came into my head was Boogie Nights. Something in between Dumb and Dumber and Swingers. How about that? Something about two guys as a duo.

So, a title. What would that be? Dumb Swingers? Tom: *Laughs* That doesn’t make us sound very good does it?

The White Panda Moll mash up? Two chicks. Put them together to create the ideal woman. Tom: Oooo… Ok. Now we’re talkin’. Dan: Tom shouldn’t have a problem with this one. Tom: *Laughs* What the hell is that supposed to mean? Dan: *Laughs* Tom: Ummm… Ok. I’m gonna throw Mika Kelly out there for one. I’m gonna say Blake Lively.

Lastly. Why should our readers check out Barely Legal? Dan: Well, I think it’s a great summertime album. We’ve tried to get as diverse as possible with our samples and just try and incorporate all different kinds of genres into being one really fun, upbeat summery type party mix. I think there’s something on that there everyone can relate to and fall in love with. There’s everything. Anyone looking for a fun summer mix should definitely check it out.

Is there anything you’d like to add? Tom: I guess, just encouraging people to come out and see us live. If you do like mash-up or you ever have looked into mash-ups I definitely encourage you to check the album out because I think both Dan and I agree that this is our most well produced album. A product that we’re probably more proud of than anything else we’ve ever done before. In addition to that, a lot of where we are today is due to our live shows and how much fun people have when coming to see us perform and with the tour about to get kicked off, definitely a good time for people to look and find out when we’re coming to their city and see what it’s like to see the Pandas live.

Interview W/ The White Panda was last modified: June 25th, 2013 by Staff